[Plugin] Shape Bender Beta

driven

For some reason it doesnt work... Maybe something is wrong with the shape.

some pointers,

draw your line the same length as your arc line

move your group so the line is centroid to it, edit group with move/copy and scale to match line length, remove at least one end, exposing the line

rotate your arc line (or copies) until it lies on the red plane and has both ends are parallel to the blue plane

off plane and off parallel will give less accurate 'real material' bends, but you may want that, so play around with copies of the arc line

john
First line centroid to tube...play around with line lengths, positions and arc segment counts as well

sbolduc

Hey,

I'm having some trouble with the selection of the line lying on the red axis, following the selection of the grouped shape to be bent. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Chris Fullmer

Well it sounds like you've got the basic idea. Probably the best thing to do at this point is to upload a small model that shows what you're trying to do and I'll take a look at it to see what might need to change.

Chris

August

@driven said:

draw your line the same length as your arc line

Not necessary, but you do need to allow in your planning for the fact that your guide line will be stretched or shrunk to match the target line, and your shape along with it.

@unknownuser said:

move your group so the line is centroid to it, edit group with move/copy and scale to match line length, remove at least one end, exposing the line

Not necessary, and may not be what you want. If the guide line is centered, some parts of the shape will be compressed and some stretched, depending on what side of the guide line they start out on, but the guide line can be some distance from the shape. You just have to visualize the results properly so that you are not surprised.

@unknownuser said:

rotate your arc line (or copies) until it lies on the red plane and has both ends are parallel to the blue plane

Neither part is necessary.

See the attached image for a Target line that is in the Blue-Green plane with a guide line that is parallel to the Red axis, perpendicular to the plane of the Target line.

@unknownuser said:

off plane and off parallel will give less accurate 'real material' bends, ...

I agree that to simulate bending of a solid material you may want to follow the rules you outlined like having the Guide Line and Target Line the same length and for the Guide Line to be centroid to the shape.

But for a wide variety of problems that Shape Bender solves, and for an even wider variety of ways to play with it, it has nothing to do with trying to simulate bending a solid material.

I hope this helps,
August

The Axes are marked since SU does not export them.

MarkEMark

Hi All:

I am trying to use Shape Bender to bend 2 flanges on a metal bracket that joins an engine mount to a wooden fuselage of an airplane.

I have drawn the bracket as shown on the plans (attached). The bracket has 2 'ears' on the top and bottom of the bracket that are bent 90 degrees to wrap around the front end of the fuselage. I want to just bend the 'ear' parts, and not the larger rounded portion of the bracket which is the attachment point for the engine mount. I have removed the holes on the side portion of the bracket that will be used for the attachment to the wooden fuse sides, as I wish to place them after bending.

My concern is that in the bending process with this plug in is that the entire front of the bracket gets bent 90 degrees and not simply the 'ear' portions. Can someone show me how this might work, or is there another script that would do this better?

Thanks so much for the help!

Mark

My Pietenpol Build.skp

TIG

This is best done manually...

MarkEMark

Thanks TIG... I'll try that. I thought it might exceed the plug in's capability... Thanks again for the pic/explaination.

Mark

MarkEMark

OK... this is embarrassing: I've forgotten how to cut the tabs off... Which command will sever them at the cut line..?

maxandvv

cool! I like it!!

albayzem

@ben ritter said:

Chris, I can hardly keep up with your wonderful scripts. Most importantly though, you are very much appreciated for your kindness to the SU community.

TIG

@markemark said:

OK... this is embarrassing: I've forgotten how to cut the tabs off... Which command will sever them at the cut line..?

I thought I posted a reply to this...
Read the notes in the image..................
Make sure that you draw lines all round the tabs so they select separately.
Then select all of the tab's geometry and group it, then rotate the group etc etc...

madorney

Hi - Can anyone help a poor soul find out how / where to download Shape Bender for Mac? Thanks!!!!

MarkEMark

Hey TIG:

Thanks again. You did send me a PM on this. I posted this question about how to cut the tabs off before I PMed you. I posted the question a couple of days before I sent you the PM. I apologize if it appeared that I was badgering ya!

The PM detailed how to do this perfectly. Thanks again!

Mark

Chris Fullmer

Hi Mark, the download is in the very first message in this thread. so go back to page 1 and scroll down to the bottom of my first post. You will also need to install progressbar.rb from smustard. There is a link to that in my first post also. Good luck!

Chris

madorney

Hi Chris - I've managed to install the Shape Bender Plug-in, but it doesn't seem to work at all on my Mac. The tool clearly shows up under my Plugins menu, and I'm able to place the tool icon in my toolbar. But as I follow your video-tutorial to a tee, it's not working: I'm able to select the component, then the Shape Bender tool. But then I'm unable to select anything at all (nothing highlights). Help?

Thanks so much!

Chris Fullmer

It sounds like maybe your straight line is not placed ont he red axis. And if your axis has been altered from its original orientation, then that will mess things up. So try resetting the global axis, then align the straight line to the red axis. See if that works. If not, could you upload a small test model?

Chris